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Anyone operating in the constantly evolving and dynamic world of e-commerce knows this one thing: when you’re in the business of selling goods across borders, you are also in the business of logistics services by default. The quality of your courier service and logistics delivery plays a core role in your operations, and if you’re a discerning entrepreneur, you know that having an effective e-commerce shipping strategy is essential for business growth.

Many businesses start out by following a straightforward approach to logistics delivery such as offering free shipping for a price cap or giving their customers options depending on how soon they want to receive their package. While these strategies work, the most successful ones also consider other factors like increasing their margins or improving their average order rate when designing their e-commerce shipping strategy. Curious as to how you can apply the same to your business if you’re not doing it yet? This article will lay it all out for you.

First, let’s understand how logistics delivery and shipping costs affect the behavior of an average shopper. According to top e-commerce website Shopify, extra costs in tax, fees, and shipping account for 50 percent of checkout and cart abandonment. It’s an all-too-familiar scenario. Someone sees a product on a website, finds the price justifiable, only to flake out at the last minute because of the last fees added. This clearly shows how shipping is simply not just an essential part of your operations, but a strategic part that influences the shopping chain and your profitability as a whole.

Taking this into account, how can you make sure that you optimize your e-commerce shipping strategy to get maximum benefits? Here are some of the ways:

1. Be transparent with your fees

One way to remove the “shock factor” that comes with the last reveal of your shipping fees is to make sure that you’re transparent with it from the get-go. Depending on the website or platform you are using, you can always choose how you want to show your pricing. Will it already include shipping? Maybe putting the shipping fee beside the product price work better? By doing this, you remove the last-minute doubts shoppers get during checkouts since the price they see on the get-go is the final one they to pay.

2. Be clear-cut with your goals

What exactly do you want to achieve with your e-commerce shipping strategy? Do you want to increase your average order value, decrease your costs, or increase conversions? Depending on what you want your business to focus on, you’ll have to tweak your logistics delivery blueprint to meet it. For example, you can increase your average order value by offering free and fast shipping at a price cap, while you can boost your conversions by giving various shipping rates and options. You can have multiple goals, of course, but it is still important to be clear about them so you can outline your strategies better.

3. Bring everyone on board

A good logistics delivery system should be collaborative. Contrary to what some might believe, your e-commerce shipping strategy is one part of your business that should be interoperational. Identify the stakeholders that need to be educated about your blueprint and make sure that they integrate it into their operations. For example, your marketing team should know which kind of shipping promotions to push to attract customers while your web design and development team should be responsible for making sure that all the right shipping options and terms are clearly shown on your e-commerce platform. Of course, your customer service team should be fully on board, with all your agents knowing the intricacies of shipping terms so they can properly assist your market.

4. Put price as a major factor to consider in your shipping strategy

How much you charge your customers for delivering their product to their doors has a direct impact on your profit margins and conversion rate. There are different ways you can always go around with your shipping price strategy including free shipping (which is quite the norm for a lot of e-commerce businesses), charging exact costs of real-time shipping rates, and providing flat-rate shipping. Again, your choice of approach circles back to your goal as a business. However, other things that you have to consider include your carrier of choice, insurance (if necessary), tracking, and even product packaging.

You also have to understand the impact of your pricing approach on your profits. For example, free shipping simply means that the cost of shipping is shifted to you as a merchant so you have to consider if your product margins cover this cost. Do you really need to even offer free shipping in the first place? Take a look at your competitors and observe their strategies to get an idea of the best approach to take.

5. Consider your packaging

Your packaging plays a big role in your shipping costs. Fortunately, it is also something that you have control over so it’s easy for you to customize and optimize. Basically, the cost for shipping out your products will depend on their weight, including their packaging. While branding is important to create customer impact, stop and think if your packaging of choice is worth it. Do you really need to send out makeup or clothing on cardboard boxes? Lightweight packaging options like poly mailers can do the job just as properly and are even offered free to merchants by various carriers.

Your e-commerce shipping strategy is one part of your operations that has an overarching impact on your business. Finding the best approach is important for any entrepreneur, though of course, you also have to make sure to find the best logistics delivery provider who can help execute your blueprint for you.

Here at MyKartero, we offer services that make it easy for all business owners to go about their e-commerce model. Not only do we offer competitive shipping rates, but we also have a top-tier rate checking system, an innovative postal system, and promise optimal transport time for our clients.